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Daydreaming Boosts Creativity, Study Suggests
The Huffington Post: Permission to daydream, granted. A new study in the journal Psychological Science shows that allowing your mind to wander might actually be good for your creative prowess. Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found an association between daydreaming and creative problem-solving. Their study involved having participants first conduct an "unusual use task" -- where they had to try to come up with as many weird ways to use an object as they could.
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Carbohydrates don’t boost self-control
United Press International: U.S. researchers say sugar does not appear to have a metabolic boost for self-control. Psychological scientist Daniel C. Molden of Northwestern University in Chicago and colleagues said many had thought self-control relied on carbohydrate metabolism -- people deplete their carbohydrate stores as they exert self-control, making it more difficult to exert self-control until the stores are built up again. Read the whole story: United Press International
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Romney, Obama and the New Culture War over Fairness
TIME: Remember when the culture war was about obscenity in rap music, protecting the flag from match-wielding protesters and spanking in schools? Not all so-called cultural issues have faded away — gay marriage and abortion are still quite divisive — but after the 2008 financial collapse and the rise of the libertarian-influenced Tea Party, both armies in the American culture war shifted their crack brigades over to the so-called economic issues of taxes and entitlement spending. The front line in this new culture war is fairness. Both sides claim to own the territory, yet they draw the map of American morality differently.
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Understanding the Zombie Teen’s Body Clock
The Wall Street Journal: Many parents know the scene: The groggy, sleep-deprived teenager stumbles through breakfast and falls asleep over afternoon homework, only to spring to life, wide-eyed and alert, at 10 p.m.—just as Mom and Dad are nodding off. Fortunately for parents, science has gotten more sophisticated at explaining why, starting at puberty, a teen's internal sleep-wake clock seems to go off the rails. Researchers are also connecting the dots between the resulting sleep loss and behavior long chalked up to just "being a teenager." This includes more risk-taking, less self-control, a drop in school performance and a rise in the incidence of depression.
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Influence in Times of Crisis: How Do Men and Women Evaluate Precarious Leadership Positions?
We’ve all heard of the “glass ceiling” but the recent economic crisis has illuminated another workplace phenomenon: the “glass cliff.” Women seem to be overrepresented in precarious leadership positions at organizations going through crisis. Evidence is growing that more feminine leadership traits, such as being understanding and tactful, are believed to be desirable under such circumstances, causing people to make a “think crisis – think female” association. But is it that women are always passively selected into these jobs or do they sometimes also actively seek them out?
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Parenting and Temperament in Childhood Predict Later Political Ideology
Political mindsets are the product of an individual’s upbringing, life experiences, and environment. But are there specific experiences that lead a person to choose one political ideology over another? New research from psychological scientist R. Chris Fraley of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and colleagues suggest that parenting practices and childhood temperament may play an influential role. Their study is published online in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
